fiat spider

Mon Oct 13 23:15:53 PDT 2003

Well, I am probably the fastest starter-puller in town. I had that sucker out, fixed and back in in about 2 hours, wiring and all. She fired right up too! Yay! Started bubbling oil from the new (old) fuel pump block off plate. Seems I left out some washers that provided the extra squeeze to keep it sealed. So I popped them back on too.

Since the car was jacked up, I let it run for a bit and checked it out underneath. It seems to make a lot of noise from the gearbox. I'll definatly want to put some redline in that sucker, drain the old stuff out. Also, a good bit of smoke is coming from the exhaust manifold. There is a leak near the rear of the engine. I think it might be a good idea to pull that thing off and check it out. Maybe this next weekend.

My reward for getting the thing started:

A lot of parts came last week. My 16 40mm bolts, my new starter solenoid, my fuel pump block off plate and my shop manual. Bolts are still too short. Major bummer. I now have to ship them back. Grr. The shop maual is for the 124 Special. What the hell is that? It's similar enough to my car that it works, but the majority of the book is about another car. Suck.

I spent an hour or so each morning this week before work, going to parts stores looking for a 50-55mm 12x1.25 lug bolt for my wheels. To no avail. I hope to try Bruce's part bin tomororrow and see what he can come up with. Possibly convert to studs and lug nuts. Would be way easier anyhow.

This weekend I pulled the starter, installed the new solenoid, agnoized about which way it should go (no instructions and no clear orientation) and then slapped it back in. I dissected the old solenoid to find that it was fried. Smelled all burned and there was lots of black stuff. So I started thinking I had bad wiring somewhere. Something was going wrong. I don't want to do this again so I looked at diagrams and electrical maps of the car to no avail. Finally, got a post on the message boards that steered me in the right direction. There is no positive or negative, just 'top and bottom' with the spade connector towards you. Which means away from the engine, which means I wired it wrong. But I didn't figure this out till I wired it up and tried to start it anyway, with a loud click as the result. Hopefully I didn't burn out another one. We'll see tomorrow when I rip the thing back out (4th time) orient the thing properly and stick it back in. I may not have to do this...I may be able to get the wires hooked up with it sideways, but I doubt it. [sigh] I am, however, getting really good at pulling the starter, one of the harder jobs for this car. heh.

In good news however, I pulled off the old fuel pump and installed the block off plate. Check it out: before, during, and after. Cool eh?

Thinking about how things are going with this car. I am learning a lot. But I wonder sometimes, if it's just me or if I'm really too much of an over-thinker to be a car-mechanic. I have caught myself more than a few times already, overanalysing something and ending up doing it in a much more complicated way and taking a lot more time than if I had just followed what makes sense. Argh. Maybe, it just means, I have a lot more to learn ahead of me before I get a 'natural feel' for this hobby. Let's hope. :)